Eating Young

Why did my hen eat her young?

In mice, this is not a common phenomenon, as mother mice are usually very protective. They can adopt the cubs of their sister, mother, completely alien female, and even the offspring of other rodent species.

However, if this does happen, the poor keeper has to clean up the remnants later, wondering, "What went wrong? Could I have prevented this?"

Mothers usually reduce the number of young in the first days or just after birth, but in exceptional cases they will kill a baby with open eyes and fur overgrown. Why is this happening?

Insufficient food and/or water, blocked drinking bowl, shortages.

Unfortunately, this is the most common reason. The drinking bowls can jam or spill, the caregiver will not notice it in time.

Food gets lost in the litter or does not meet the mother's needs. The female will decide that she is unable to feed the young.

Depending on the mouse, this may happen sooner or later. It may be that after transferring the mother with 2-week-old babies to the carrier for 5-15 minutes (without a drinker), she starts to attack them aggressively. Conversely, the mother may starve herself, but still feeds her offspring.

There were too many babies in the litter.

So the female reduced their numbers to as many as she could feed. (That's why many breeders put them to sleep before the female is forced to do so.)

It was the female's first litter and she didn't really know what to do with it.

Sometimes a panicked firstparous will kill her entire litter, usually making her condition worse.

Most often it is a one-time situation, the second litter is born without any problems. However, if the situation recurs, the mouse should be excluded from further breeding.

The female ate the placenta (the natural form of things) and accidentally ate the baby.

There may also be situations of biting off the tail / finger during childbirth, it happens. The body of newborns is very delicate.

Young was sick, weak, deformed.

It is perfectly natural for the mother to reduce offspring that are not able to survive anyway. All to regain precious energy.

Lactation has stopped/is insufficient.

A common situation when rearing very few litters (1-2 pieces). So few young sometimes are not able to stimulate lactation enough, so it stops spontaneously, and the mother reduces the offspring.

Mother was worried/stressed.

Most common in mice of unknown origin/pet stores. Purebred mice are selected for behavior towards their offspring. Ask the breeder from whom you get the first breeding mice to inform you about the temperament of a particular line, and thus how much you can afford to operate on its children. In an ideal situation, you can easily watch the litter immediately after birth, without the slightest concern about their health. For mice of no known origin - it is best to wait a week.

The safest way to watch the young is to calmly transfer the mother to the carrier with tasty food, thanks to which she is not so nervous.

How to avoid eating the young by the mother?

Provide her with a suitable place, peace, quiet, do not stress her, regularly check the availability of water and food, do not allow sick, wild, weakened mice to reproduce, reduce the number of young in the litter if necessary.